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Fascel slashes airtime charges by 28-35 per cent

Fascel Ltd, the largest mobile phone operator in Gujarat, announced on Wednesday a 28-35 per cent cut in its airtime charges.

The company will drop airtime rates to Rs 1.10 a minute for incoming calls and Rs 2.20 for outgoing calls under a new tariff plan being launched on Friday.

"The new plans are in line with our strategy to give more to our customers, whether it is tariff value, range of services, quality of customer support," said Sunil Sood, Fascel Ltd's chief operating officer.

Fascel Ltd, in which Hong Kong based Hutchison Teleom has a 49 per cent stake, would invest Rs 2 billion in 2001-02 (April-March) to extend its network coverage to 150 more cities in Gujarat and lay optical fibre cable, Sood said.

He said the expansion costs would be met through borrowing from domestic commercial banks.

Fascel, which provides its cellular services under the "Cell Force" brand name, has 1,80,000 subscribers.

Sood said the company was looking at a 70 per cent increase in its customer base at the end of March 31, 2002.

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